The Turbosherbet Rainbow

We began recording TURBOSHERBET within months of releasing the album SHE. The label wanted to capitalize on SHE’s success at college radio and a raft of great reviews. My dreams of becoming a full-time recording artist were coming true!

Producer John Fields and I approached the new album in the same manner as SHE, with he and I in the kitchen, bringing in members of Greazy Meal for spice, including Ken Chastain, Tommy Barbarella, Jim Anton and Julius Collins. Mike Ruekberg and Dorian Crozier would contribute mightily.

This made for a terrific studio band. And the album, like SHE was made quickly in what seemed like just 10 sessions.

For TURBOSHERBET, the first song we recorded was “She Said Yeah“, a musical explosion between John and Dorian. They played with such derring-do, each one pushing the other further, syncopating to every detail of my guitar. John’s freaky, counterpoint backing vocals, his scatted guitar solo, and the insane abuse of the jazz samples I’d brought in were all a part of the boldness. If there was going to be room on the track for me, I’d have to go big and push my boundaries as a singer.

John, worked fast and furiously, topping what we’d done on SHE. And I sat in the front row watching the fireworks as he built one insane music track after another, foremost the epic “Bygones”. It’s Queen, ELO and Who all in one… but pure unhinged Willie too. Taking our hero worship to a new level, that track alone would earn me a whole new layer of fans, and John too as a producer. In the era of Jellyfish, there was an audience waiting.

John is a consummate musician. He can play any instrument (even ones he doesn’t know how to play). On the contrary, if you need scrappy performances, I’m your guy. So, I became the odd pearl in John’s clam shell of musical delight. In fact, he would pointedly use me to add disruptive touches, beauty marks, and punchlines. And I was always game! Then around those personality spots he’d build amazing landscapes. Just dig “Home By Friday” or “Raincan”. Any weird idea I had he was as eager to add into the mix. And if I had one fantastical notion, he had three more. The album was made by two people always saying, “Yes, and….” Whether it was building in a measure of 5:4 in a 4:4 song like “Drunken Young Men”, or creating an extra long coda on “Home By Friday”, or using an electric shaver to play a solo on “Two Charcoal Hearts”, or adding a turntable scratching DJ on “Doorbells”, everything was in bounds on this rock album.

This sense of adventure permeated everything. For “So Turned On” he sent me out to my shag-carpeted touring van in the parking lot, with an SM-57 microphone and a 100 foot mic cable, so I could thrash about and not hurt myself while giving my best Trent Reznor vocal performance. Got it on the first take, man!

And when I brought in “Bygones” and showed him the opening lick John shouted, “FUZZ BASS!” So that’s me playing that crazy wah-wah, fuzz-tanked bruising bastard of a riff, which we simply looped. What prompted Dorian to quit playing in the coda and come back in with earth-moving drum fills for the song’s second finale (because one wasn’t enough), we may never know. But the tape was rolling and we caught it and kept it. John’s overdubs are pure madness.

During the summer of 1996 we finished TURBOSHERBET, aptly titled by my touring drummer Chris Lakey, who was the first to note how colorful everything sounded.

We took the record on the road with James F. Weber on guitar/keyboards, John Guion and Craig Holets on bass and Chris “Lakestar” Lakey on drums. Chris also played samples and sang exquisite backing vocals. Coastal tours and a huge contest victory in Chicago led to a high profile gig at the Los Angeles Grammy® Showcase, which boosted the record nicely. Meanwhile Steven Greenberg and his team at October Records supported the tour and album with a dedication I’d never before had behind me.

In the years following TURBOSHERBET, John Fields would go on to build a platinum-selling production career, helping to forge the sound of Jonas Brothers, Switchfoot, Andrew WK, Mandy Moore, u to very recently, Busted and Cory Wong. After the tours, I hid out in by 60’s freakbeat band The Conquerors, playing keyboards and prancing about with the boys. Then in 1999 I moved to LA to work on a new solo album and follow up on the indelible work I did with John.